


The Distance Between Us

by orphan_account



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Rilaya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 19:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6533167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Katy accepts a job in Seattle Maya's world comes crashing around her, as do her feelings for Riley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Distance Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the following tumblr prompt: Oooooh Rilaya prompt! How about one similar to "a long walk to Pittsburgh", but this time Katy gets a job & has to take Maya away. Rilaya angst, Riley admits she loves her & begs her to stay, Maya leaves, then Maya runs away back to NY to confess to Riley she loves her back.  
> Huge shout out to the nonny who sent me this!

This wasn't happening. This could not be happening. Maya simply refused to accept the fact that this was her life.

She'd been avoiding it for weeks now, running off every time her mom tried to broach the subject; all but covering her ears and singing whenever the topic came up. Her mom had apologized a hundred times for the fact that they were moving during Maya's final year of high school but, as she claimed, this job opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

Maya disagreed wholeheartedly. Sure she wanted her mom to be happy, wanted her to have a successful career and everything she ever wanted and all that, she just wanted her to do it here in New York. At least until Maya was in college and living on her own. She didn't want to have to leave her friends, she didn't want to have to leave Riley.

That was why she put off telling them until the last possible minute. Telling people meant that it was happening, that it was all real, and Maya so desperately wanted for this not to be real.

"What do you mean you're moving?" Riley asked, her voice tight as she stared at Maya from across the bay window.

Maya shrugged helplessly as she looked down at her hands folded tightly in her lap. "I mean I'm moving."

"To a new apartment right?" Maya could hear the faint edge of desperation in Riley's voice and she closed her eyes to fight back the tears that suddenly prickled in her eyes. 

"You're not leaving the city of course. You'd never leave the city."

"I don't have a choice Riles." Maya whispered, cutting off what she was sure to be the start of a fairly long tirade. She needed to rip this off quick like a bandage before it got any harder for either of them. "My Mom got a job in Seattle and-"

"Seattle?!" Riley cried, her voice going up two decibels as she looked at Maya in terror. "Maya that's clear across the country!"

"I know." Maya whispered, clearing her throat in an attempt to dislodge the lump in her throat. "I know."

Riley stared at her for a long moment, her mouth open as she gaped for the words to say. "But I don't want you to go." she finally whispered, scooting closer and wrapping her arm tightly around Maya's as if that would be enough to keep her there.

"Me neither." Maya agreed as she let her head fall against Riley's shoulder. As Riley wrapped her arms tighter around her the tears that Maya had been holding back for weeks finally began to fall from her eyes.

The last few weeks she had in New York were tainted by the fact that she was about to leave it. She had a running clock constantly ticking down in her head and she knew without asking that Riley had one too. They had always been inseparable but they reached a whole new level in those last few weeks, barely leaving each others sights. Every time they were together Maya tried to convince herself to work up the courage to tell Riley how she really felt about her but the thought of what that confession could do to their friendship always stopped her.

She loved Riley too much to ever lose her, and since she was going to lose her once she moved anyway Maya didn't see the point of speeding things along by telling her that she'd been in love with her for years.

There was no point now anyway.

Like Riley had said, Seattle was clear across the country. Even if by some miracle Riley loved her back they would never survive with that kind of distance between them.

Her last night in New York they threw a part at Topanga's, a going away that felt like anything but a celebration. Maya lasted for almost an hour before she fled, stealing hugs from all of her friends but not whispering a single word of good-bye. She knew if she heard that word she would break down into a mess and she simply did not have the time to pull herself back together.

She was almost to the end of the street before she heard footsteps racing after her and she turned, completely unsurprised to see Riley staring at her with a look of frustration and hurt mingling on her face.

"You weren't even going to tell me good-bye?" She whispered, trying and failing to mask the pain she was feeling.

Maya shook her head as she crossed her arms tight across her chest, as if she could physically hold herself together. "I'm no good with goodbyes." She admitted. "Must be from all those times of getting left. I don't know how to be the one doing the leaving." She tried to make it into a joke but even she could hear the pain in her own voice.

"Maya..." Riley took a step closer to her, reaching over to place her hand on top of hers. Maya tried to shake off the butterflies that blossomed in her stomach at the contact even in this tense situation "Please don't do this."

"Do what Riley? I'm not doing anything." Maya shook her head stubbornly as she took a step backwards. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up and she knew she needed to leave before this got any worse than it already was.

"You're pushing me away!" Riley cried in frustration. "I know Seattle's far away but you don't have to stay there forever! Besides we can call and text and-"

"It's not the same!" Maya yelled, not bothering to tell Riley that their parents had already told them everything Riley had just said countless times already. "It won't be the same and you know it."

"No but it'll be something! You can't just keep shoving me out because you're afraid of what the distance will do to us." Riley tried to keep her tone calm, but an air of desperation had settled on her like a cloud and Maya knew that she too could feel the miles already stretching out between them.

"I'm not pushing you away." Maya protested because truly she wasn't. All she was trying to do was keep herself from making a fool of herself and telling Riley how she felt before she left. She was sure Riley would never see her in the same way so ruining their friendship when she wasn't even going to be there to pick up the pieces seemed like a terrible idea.

"Yes you are." Riley argued, her voice sounding more disappointed than angry.

"Why do you care so much?!" Maya finally cried, her frustration finally bubbling over at this whole situation. At her mom, at having to move, at Riley for making her feel worse about it than she already did. "Why does it matter if I push you away now? I'm leaving Riley! I'll be gone so it doesn't matter anymore!"

"It does to me!" Riley protested, her voice tight with tears Maya knew she was being too stubborn to shed.

"Why!?" Maya cried, throwing her arms out to her sides in anger that Riley was making their last night together into such a mess. She had been content with slipping out of the party, with her friends not knowing that their last moment with her was their last moment until it was too late but now her last moment with Riley was going to be them screaming at each other in an empty street and Maya was suddenly furious about it.

"Because I'm in love with you!" Riley cried, her eyes going wide as she realized the words she'd just carelessly flung from her mouth.

The words Maya had been longing so desperately to hear suddenly felt like glass in her ears and her anger deflated like a balloon. This was not how she wanted this moment to go. She did not want to know that she could have Riley, be with her in the way she'd wanted to be for so long, just to have to leave her.

Riley's eyes were wide and desperate on hers as Maya shook her head slowly as she began to backup.

"Don't." She pleaded, shaking her head as Riley reached out to grab her arm. "Please don't make this any harder than it already is."

Her heart shriveled up as she turned and walked away from Riley, not bothering to try to stop the tears that dripped down her face. She'd wanted so badly to tell Riley how much she loved her too, but she didn't have the strength to tell her that just to leave her.

Maya hadn't heard very much about Seattle but from she had she'd gathered that it was a dreary place, with rain and gray skies. So it seemed like some sort of cosmic joke that the day they arrived the sun was out and shining brightly with full force. The kind of day that would cause Riley to drag her outside to walk the streets and people watch from outdoor cafes.

Thinking about Riley caused her chest to seize up and she ran her thumb against the edge of her phone in her pocket debating whether or not she should call Riley to tell her that they landed. In the end she decided she was not quite ready to hear her voice, to hear how tinny it would sound over the phone now. She debated snapping a selfie to her with a thumbs up but Maya knew she could not force herself to smile. So she pulled out her phone and texted her, _We made it._

She hadn't even put her phone back in her pocket when it chimed, Riley's words flashing across the screen at her, _I miss you already._

The smallest of smiles formed on Maya's lips as she quickly thumbed back, _Me too. ___

The days passed in an endless blur, indecipherable from the others before it. She wokes up, she went to school, she came home. The only break up in the monotony of her routine was her conversations with her friends back in New York. She spends countless hours snapchating pictures of pigeons to Zay as they try to decide which city has fatter birds. She knows that he'd listen to her if she needed to talk but it's such a relief to have someone she can still joke with that she never brings up anything serious.

Lucas and her text each other silly memes and have random bursts of seriousness where she admits how much she misses New York and he confides that he felt the same way when he left Texas. He urges her to give it time, to give this new city a chance but Maya knows that it is not time she needs.

Farkle called her every night and they talked about nothing and everything. They'd grown closer over the years and now that she was only communicating with Riley via sporadic text messages they were growing closer still. He ended every conversation with a plead for her to just call Riley, that she needed to hear her voice and not just read her words. He didn't seem to realize the gravity of what he was asking Maya to do and she couldn't bring herself to tell him. To tell him that the last time her and Riley had spoken in person Riley had told Maya the thing she'd wanted to hear since she was fourteen years old. That she was actually _in love_ with her.

And Maya hadn't said it back.

She'd wanted to, of course she'd wanted to, but she couldn't get the words to come that night. That wasn't how she wanted to tell Riley that she loved her, in some rushed and forced confession before they didn't see each other for the next year. College was only one year away and hopefully she'd be able to scrounge up the grades to get into NYU and go back to the city, and the girl, that she loved.

Maya could make it one more year without confessing her love to Riley, she'd kept it hidden for three years after all. She couldn't bring herself to call Riley because she knew that if she did the words would fall out of her mouth, and somehow saying 'I love you' with nearly three thousand miles between them seemed even worse than not saying it at all. Besides it wasn't like Riley didn't know Maya was in love with her too.

Right?

The thought suddenly filled Maya with a bolt of terror and she lifted her head from her arms where she'd slumped across her desk with eyes open wide. Her sudden movement caught the eye of the teacher who looked over at her in surprise.

"Are you alright Maya?" She asked, her brow furrowing in concern.

Maya gaped as she fought the realization that Riley might have taken her leaving as an act of refusal, her silence as an avoidance of Riley's feelings not a way to protect them both from the fact that she was moving across the country. She might not even realize that Maya was hopelessly and desperately in love with her too.

How could Maya have been so stupid to not realize this? Of course Riley would think the worst of her silence, she'd always struggled with her self esteem she must have assumed that Maya didn't want her back, that she only saw her as a friend. The terror in Maya built to a crescendo and before she even knew what she was doing she stood, gripping the strap of her bag in hand as she pushed her way past the shocked faces of classmates she hadn't even bothered to learn the names of.

She spared the nonplussed teacher a sympathetic glance, not faltering as she announced, "I have to go." And headed straight out the door.

There was something oddly freeing about walking straight out of the school, even as the teacher yelled for her to come back. Maya kept her head up high, not sparing a thought for whether or not she'd just let her dreams of NYU fall around her feet. She needed to set Riley straight, she had to tell her how she felt, the distance be damned. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed with an air of desperation.

"Maya? Why aren't you in class, what's wrong?" The familiar voice came through the phone slightly distorted from what she was used to but it still brought a smile to her face.

"I need your help Farkle."

The bus ride took longer than she'd expected, nearly three days spent jostling between other passengers and changing buses four times. They'd spent over half of the trip straddling the Canadian border but Maya hadn't noticed any of the beauty of the scenery they passed. She'd spent the majority of the trip dodging frantic phone calls from her mother and trying to come up with what she was going to say to Riley when she finally got to New York. She kept trying to play out different scenarios in her head, different ways that she could tell Riley she was sorry and that she was in love with her too.

That she had been for a very long time.

None of the scenarios Maya had imagined had included rain but of course it was pouring by the time her final bus pulled to a stop. Maya didn't care though because she recognized this street, she knew these smells and these sounds. For the first time in weeks she almost felt like she was home.

She ran the last few streets, her clothes sticking to her skin as the unyielding rain poured down on her. Her fingers were numb by the time Riley's brownstone came into sight and Maya let out a wordless sob at the sight of it. The metal of the fire escape was so cold it hurt her skin where she touched it but Maya pulled herself up regardless, her heartbeat in her throat.

She didn't even realize that the window was closed until she almost slammed into it, so intent was she on reaching Riley. Maya rested her hand on the glass of the window and for a moment she felt terrified to look inside, like she was Peter Pan about to see his parents with a new child. She was afraid she was going to look in and see Riley with a new her.

Taking a deep breath and stealing herself for the pain she was sure was about to come Maya peered inside the window, fully expecting to see Riley smiling and laughing with some other girl. Instead she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Riley sitting at her desk, alone.

Her back was to her and for a long moment Maya simply stared at her, oblivious to the rain still cascading down on her. She'd forgotten how much she missed Riley's familiar long brown hair, the curve of her neck, the way her hand curled around a pen.

Feeling suddenly nervous Maya timidly tapped on the glass with one finger, noticing Riley stir slightly at the noise. When she made no further move Maya tapped again, more frantically this time.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Riley turned around slowly to stare out the window. Maya couldn't fight the smile that stretched across her lips at the wide eyed look Riley gave her before she darted across the room, nearly tripping over the rug in her haste to reach the window.

"Maya!" She cried as she shoved the window up, " What are you doing here?" She asked as she helped Maya tumble through the window. The heat of her bedroom made the cold finally seep into Maya and she let out a violent shiver that made rain water splatter off her clothes and onto Riley's floor.

"Came to see you of course." Maya said through chattering teeth.

"Your mom's been calling us for days!" Riley cried reproachfully as she grabbed a blanket from the end of her bed and wrapped it tight around Maya's shoulders. "She said you'd run away."

"I told her I was coming here." Maya protested weakly as she clutched the blanket tighter to her. And she had, after she was already four hours away.

"What are you doing here?" Riley repeated, her voice suddenly weary as she looked down at Maya with guarded brown eyes. The sight of Riley being guarded around her caused her throat to seize up in shame and for a moment Maya had to struggle to breath.

"I had to tell you something." Maya admitted in a whisper as she fought to regain the fervor that had dragged her out here. Now as she stood dripping a puddle all over Riley's bedroom floor with her looking at her like a scolded puppy telling her over the phone didn't seem like such a bad idea.

Apparently Riley had the same thought because she shook her head in confusion as she asked, "What could you tell me that you couldn't say over the phone?"

It was now or never, Maya reminded herself as she gathered up her courage and took a step forward, closing the distance between them. Riley's eyes widened in surprise as Maya let go of the blanket to place her hand on the back of Riley's neck, guiding her face down to hers.

"This." She whispered before she kissed her.

Maya had kissed people before, girls and boys, but it was nothing like this. She curled her hand into Riley's hair as their lips parted against each other, Riley raising her hands to place on Maya's hips as the initial shock of the kiss wore off. Her lips were warm against Maya's and she could taste the cinnamon gum Riley had recently grown so fond off. She wrapped her other arm around Riley's waist and smiled against her lips as they melted against each other.

It felt like a lifetime before they finally pulled apart, Riley resting her forehead against Maya's as she let out a breathless giggle.

"Wow. You can't say that over the phone." Riley agreed causing Maya to let out a laugh of her own.

"It's not just that." She admitted, feeling as if she was high from the way Riley was still pressed against her. "I'm in love with you too."

Riley pulled away from her to get a better look in her eyes and Maya searched hers desperately for some confirmation that she still felt the same, that she hadn't just told her that in some desperate ploy to get her to stay.

All of her worries left her in a rush as a beaming smile began to stretch across Riley's face. Maya smiled at the sight of it and let her head fall against Riley's chest in relief. She wrapped her arms around Maya in response and Maya let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"What are we going to do now?" Riley whispered, as she rested her chin on the top of Maya's head.

Maya let out an almost desperate laugh as she admitted, "I have no idea."

All she knew was that as she snuggled up next to Riley in the bay window Maya finally felt at home.


End file.
